Turtle Cams

Viewers from around the world can now tune into our live web cams to check on the progress of sea turtle patient Ballard in his hospital tank (top image). Ballard is also one of our adoptable patients! Big thanks to Florida Power & Light Company and the FPL Group Foundation for the donation which made the Turtle Cams a reality.

Ballard is a sub-adult loggerhead sea turtle patient that was found at FPL’s St. Lucie site. The patient’s bloodwork on arrival indicates anemia and hypoglycemia. Ballard is underweight and in poor health overall due to chronic debilitation. The turtle was put into freshwater to remove the barnacles, leeches, and other epibiota that covered its body. Ballard is receiving fluids, antibiotics, and parenteral nutrition. Hospital staff will closely monitor the turtle with routine bloodwork as it's being treated.

Ballard is named after our 2019 Go Blue Awards Luncheon Keynote Speaker, Dr. Robert Ballard. Dr. Ballard Best known for his 1985 discovery of the RMS Titanic, has succeeded in tracking down numerous other significant shipwrecks, including the German battleship Bismarck, the lost fleet of Guadalcanal, the U.S. aircraft carrier Yorktown (sunk in the World War II Battle of Midway), and John F. Kennedy’s boat, PT-109.